Publications by authors named "Francesca Mungiguerra"
The objective of the current research was to develop a liquid chromatography-MS (LC-MS) methodology for the determination of free cortisol and its 15 endogenous metabolites (6β-hydroxycortisol, 20α-dihydrocortisol, 20α-dihydrocortisone, 20-β-dihydrocortisol, 20β-dihydrocortisone, prednisolone, cortisone, α-cortolone, β-cortolone, allotetrahydrocortisol, 5α-dihydrocortisol, tetrahydrocortisol, allotetrahydrocortisone, 5β-dihydrocortisol, tetrahydrocortisone) in human urine. Due to its optimal performance, a linear ion trap operating in ESI negative ion mode was chosen for the spectrometric analysis, performing MS and MS experiments. The method was validated for limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) (0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Prednisolone has been found endogenously in the urine of bovine and horses, raising concerns about its implications in doping control for athletes.
- A study with 34 volunteers showed that all had prednisolone in their urine, but at levels significantly lower than cortisol, with no gender differences.
- The findings suggest that low levels of prednisolone are naturally present in humans, indicating a need for further research into its biosynthesis and connection to stress.
Rationale: After the detection of low concentrations of prednisolone in racehorse urine samples collected at Italian racetracks, a study was initiated to investigate the accuracy of the analytical protocol used and the possible endogenous origin of detected prednisolone.
Methods: Multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) MS(2) acquisition with a triple quadrupole (n = 780) and full scan MS(2) and MS(3) (n = 180) acquisition with a linear ion trap were checked. As a further confirmation, ten urine samples were analysed by high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS).